Written by Mr. Mouseburger 9th Mar 2006

Kindly submitted by grimreaper

Prologue: Sauron is the source of all evil in Middle Earth, and it was by his hand that the one ring, master of all the rings of power, was created in the fires of Mount Doom. Sinking all of his hatred and will to rule into the ring, the spirit of the ring and Sauron became entwined, so that even when his physical form was killed by Isildur, he could not be destroyed until the ring was. He has been demoted to a more ethereal form though, currently residing at the top of the tower in Barad Dûr as a "great eye, wreathed in flame".

At this point in the film, the armies of Mordor have lost the mighty battle at Minas Tirith, capital of Gondor. While this was going on, Sam and Frodo were slowly approaching Mount Doom with the one ring, guided by the treacherous Gollum/Sméagol. Aragorn, now recognised as the rightful King of Gondor, leads an army to the Black Gates of Mordor in the hope of buying Frodo and Sam more time to destroy the ring. During the Battle of the Black Gate, Sam and Frodo make their way up Mount Doom, where the treacherous Gollum, who wants the ring for himself, attacks them. Sam repels Gollum, while Frodo reaches the entrance to the Crack of Doom.

However, the self-preservation of the ring is so powerful that Frodo's will fails and he refuses to throw the ring into the magma. Sam watches in shock as Frodo places the ring on his finger, becoming invisible. This alerts Sauron and the Nazgul to the location of the hobbits, and they fly with all haste towards Mount Doom. The fate of Middle Earth is uncertain: if Sauron recovers his ring, he will have the power to dominate Middle-Earth once again, and no alliance will be able to stop him.

Back at Mount Doom, Frodo is trying to sneak past Sam, when Gollum appears behind Sam and knocks him unconscious with a rock. Gollum then detects the visible footsteps Frodo is making on the floor and he leaps through the air and latches onto Frodo. The pair struggle, and Gollum searches for Frodo’s ring finger, and when he locates it, he bites it off and takes the ring. Frodo reappears and falls to the ground in agony; Gollum is elated, being in possession of the ring after all these long years.

In his jubilation though, Gollum does not notice Frodo getting up and advancing on him. Frodo is not prepared to give up the ring so easily and so he and Gollum struggle again for the ring. This time, the force of the struggling sends the pair of them falling over the ledge, and Gollum falls into the lava and burns up relatively quickly. The ring takes longer to melt, possibly due to the magic imbued in it, but more likely due to increase the dramatic tension. When it finally does melt, Sauron shrieks out one last spiritual scream before Barad Dûr collapses. The great eye shrinks in size before disappearing completely with a explosive blast of sound.